Starting kicker up for grabs

by Daniel Archuleta

Daily Lobo

As the UNM football team prepares for the season's first kickoff, it must first decide who will make that kick.

The loss of departing senior kicker Wes Zunker has left the door wide open for two Lobo kickers to step up and fill the void.

Garth Archibald and Kenny Byrd will finish out the summer battling for the job.

If the season were to start tomorrow, Archibald would be the No. 1 kicker.

"Going in to camp I'm No. 1 right now," he said. "It's going to be a good competition."

Archibald has been working hard since the end of last season for the opportunity. He said he's been trying to build his leg strength by running and kicking as much as possible.

Byrd is equally ready for the chance to step in and fill the kicking position.

"It's between me and Garth," he said. "Whichever one of us does better in the fall will get the job."

Archibald said he has no problem sharing time or responsibilities.

"Whatever gets me on the field," he said. "It's going to be fun regardless. I can do one of the three things: offense, defense or special teams, as long as I can get some points on the board and help our team out."

Byrd said winning games is still the most important thing to him.

"If one of us is kicking better than the other, then that is the best thing to win the game," he said.

In the offseason, Byrd said he has been training with ex-NFL kicker Chris Boniol to help him win the job. Boniol spent six years in the league with Dallas, Philadelphia and Chicago. Boniol has also helped Zunker.

Between Byrd and Archibald, Byrd is the only one of the two who saw any playing time last year. Byrd missed his only attempted field goal and had three kickoffs for 176 yards with an average of 58.7 yards per kick.

Byrd said he knows replacing Zunker will not be easy.

"Wes had something about him," Bird said. "He just always had it. There was never any doubt. He was a clutch performer and that is hard to back up as soon as their gone."

Archibald is favored to win the kicking contest because of a strong spring practice performance.

However, head coach Rocky Long said the battle still has a few rounds to go.

"We haven't made that decision yet," he said. "We are going to let them fight it out in training camp."

Training camp begins Aug. 8.